The concept of the 'Balkans' was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. English traveler John Morritt introduced this term into the English literature at the end of the 18th-century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains) and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general meaning of mountain, as in KodМІjМІa-Balkan, ДЊatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-BalkaniМЉ, but especially it was applied to the Haemus mountain. There is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region.

The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. The first attested time the name 'Balkan' was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus mountains are referred to as Balkan. Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon.

A third possibility is that 'Haemus' ( О‘бјµОјОїП‚) derives from the Greek word 'haima' ( О±бј·ОјО±) meaning 'blood'. Dechev considers that Haemus (О‘бј·ОјОїП‚) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge'. A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name. Historical names and meaning Classical antiquity and the early Middle AgesДЇrom classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian name Haemus. In modern Turkish balkan means 'chain of wooded mountains'. It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Related words are also found in Turkic languages. The origin of the word Balkan is obscure it may be related to Persian bДЃlk 'mud', and the Turkish suffix an 'swampy forest' or Persian balДЃ-khДЃna 'big high house'.

4 History and geopolitical significance.

2.4 Criticism of the geographical definition.

1.3 Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century.

1.2.2 Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period.

1.2.1 Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

The term has acquired a stigmatized and pejorative meaning related to the process of Balkanization, and hence the preferred alternative term used for the region is Southeast Europe. The definition of the Balkan Peninsula's natural borders does not coincide with the technical definition of a peninsula hence modern geographers reject the idea of a Balkan peninsula, while historical scholars usually discuss the Balkans as a region. It had a geopolitical rather than a geographical definition, which was further promoted during the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the early 20th century. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia in the 19th century, the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596В ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.

The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish Straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkans ( / Л€ b Й”Лђ l k Й™n z/ BAWL-kЙ™nz), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographic area in Southeast Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. 55 million (32 million only the peninsula's part)

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